A useful beginners' guide to using Quora

1. So you’ve joined
Quora!
Here are a few things some experienced users think
you will find helpful

2. Real name policy
 First things first! Quora has a real name policy. If you
are not using your real name, you may get a name
change request, and you may be blocked from using the
site until you have verified your identity.
 For more information, see
http://www.quora.com/Quora-Policies-and-
Guidelines/Do-I-have-to-use-my-real-name-on-Quora-
What-is-Quoras-Real-Names-policy

3. Quora’s two key policies
 The two principles underlying all specific policies are:
 Improve the page of answers for each question
 “Be Nice, Be Respectful” – Quora has standards of
discourse that are quite different to most other sites, so
it’s particularly important to become familiar with this
 See http://www.quora.com/Quora-Policies-and-
Guidelines/What-are-Quoras-two-key-policy-principles

4. Improve the page by
providing a helpful answer
 Certain types of answers – such as joke answers, and
memes – are prohibited on Quora. But underlying each
is the core philosophy that answers should make a
question page a better source of information than it
was before the answer was added. Follow this rule and
you’re unlikely to go wrong.
 Any variant of “I don’t know what I’d do, but that is a
tricky situation!”, “What a dumb question”, or riffing
on the topic without answering the specific question
asked, is likely to get your answer collapsed.
 Read the question carefully to determine what
information it’s actually seeking.

5. Be nice, be respectful
Quora has very different standards to much of the rest of
the internet. A key aspect of that is Quora’s “be nice, be
respectful” policy, which is frequently abbreviated as
BNBR.
You can read it here: http://www.quora.com/Be-Nice-Be-
Respectful-Quora-policy/What-is-Quoras-Be-Nice-Be-
Respectful-policy
Note particularly that retaliating to perceived violations of
BNBR by other users, is itself a violation. Report for
moderation to deal with it. (See
http://productupdates.quora.com/Report-Content-to-
Quora-Moderators)

6. Questions are community
property
Quora doesn’t allow for duplicate questions, so each
question needs to be asked in the way that attracts the
best answers. As such, you may notice that questions that
you ask get edited by other users. This is encouraged by
Quora, and you should view it help with improving your
question rather than be defensive.
See http://www.quora.com/Quora-Policies-and-
Guidelines/What-is-Quoras-policy-on-community-control-of-
questions-Should-I-feel-a-sense-of-responsibility-over-questions-
that-I-ask-on-Quora

7. Who moderates the site?
Quora has admins and reviewers, as well as employees.
See http://www.quora.com/Quora-Policies-and-
Guidelines/How-are-moderation-and-policy-decisions-made-
on-Quora
Any other user can edit question titles, question details,
and answer wikis, and suggest edits to answers.

8. Joke answer policy
Answers that are helpful and happen to be amusing are
allowed; answers that are merely an attempt to be funny
but don’t provide any assistance to somebody genuinely
wanting the answer to the question are not.
See http://www.quora.com/Quora-Policies-and-
Guidelines/What-is-Quoras-policy-on-humorous-answers-reviews

9. Images policy
Quora is primarily a text-based site. Images are allowed,
but only where they make the page more useful. Memes
are prohibited except on questions specifically asking for
memes.
See http://www.quora.com/Quora-Policies-and-
Guidelines/What-is-Quoras-policy-on-adding-images-and-videos-
to-answers-and-reviews

10. Spam
Just don’t!
See http://www.quora.com/Quora-Policies-and-
Guidelines/How-does-Quora-define-spam-What-are-the-consequences-
of-spamming-on-Quora

11. Other topics that may be of
interest
 The anonymity function: http://www.quora.com/Anonymity-
Quora-feature/How-can-I-anonymously-add-content-on-Quora
 Marking answers “not for reproduction”
http://www.quora.com/Quora-Not-for-Reproduction-Option/How-should-
I-tag-my-Quora-content-as-not-for-reproduction
 Preventing your answers being indexed by search engines
http://www.quora.com/Quora-and-Search-Engines/What-does-toggling-
Allow-search-engines-to-index-your-name-under-Privacy-
Settings-do
 How your Quora content can be re-used elsewhere
http://www.quora.com/Quora-Policies-and-Guidelines/How-can-material-
on-Quora-be-reused-elsewhere-What-are-the-licensing-terms-
What-about-in-the-case-where-a-user-has-selected-the-not-for-
reproduction-option

12. Welcome to Quora!
That should be enough to get started. Quora has a strong and
very helpful community. If there’s anything you’re unsure
about, search to see if it’s already been asked on Quora.
(Often, it will have been.)
Alternatively, most admins, reviewers, and Top Writers have
been around long enough to “know the ropes”, and may be
willing to assist you if asked.
 http://www.quora.com/Quora-Admins/Who-are-the-current-
site-admins-of-Quora
 http://www.quora.com/Quora-Reviewers/Who-are-all-of-the-
reviewers-on-Quora
 http://www.quora.com/Who-are-the-top-writers-on-Quora
 Also: http://www.quora.com/What-are-Quoras-unspoken-values-
and-points-of-etiquette